Juventus 4-3 Napoli: 5 Talking Points and Tactical Analysis

#2 Matthijs De Ligt endures a shocking home debut

De Ligt (R) endured a shocking home debut

Matthijs De Ligt dominated the back pages of the early part of the off-season with plenty of suitors lining up to seal his signature. In the end though, Juventus won that race and tied down the former Ajax skipper to a long-term deal.

Inevitably, the Dutchman had an enormous reputation to live up to. Unfortunately for him though, he did himself no favours with a shocking performance against Napoli on his home debut.

The centre-back started off calmly in the first half and barring a misunderstanding with Leonardo Bonnuci, De Ligt looked largely untroubled.

However, things went rather pear shaped in the second period as he was culpable for each goal the hosts conceded.

For the first goal, he got caught under the ball and was beaten to the free-kick by Manolas, who nodded past Wojciech Szczęsny.

The third goal highlighted a similar deficiency as Di Lorenzo got the better of the Dutchman to score the equaliser.

The most worrying of his mistakes though, was the error he committed for Napoli’s second goal.

Zielinski attracted Bonucci to the ball on the left wing and that left De Ligt to deal with Lozano. However, the Dutchman inexplicably stopped tracking the Mexican’s run, instead contriving to watch the ball as the forward swept home from close range.

Over the past couple of seasons, De Ligt has distinguished himself as arguably the best young centre-back in the world. And, one bad performance ideally shouldn’t impede him in his pursuit of greatness.

Yet, one reckons that the Dutchman might’ve just wanted to enjoy a slightly more cordial home debut.